Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island)

Peacock on the Pfaueninsel

Posted by James

Today on our last Sunday in Berlin, we biked out to the Pfaueninsel. The trip was about an hour each way, and, at the very end, we had a 5 minute ferry ride across the channel to the island. Since it was a nice day and there were a lot of boats out, the channel was pretty busy as you can see in this photo:

A small flat boat is moving just in the wake of a larger passenger ferry.

The Pfaueninsel is a large island in the Grosser Wannsee, which, itself, is part of the Havel River complex to the west of the Berlin city. Though it and the village of Wannsee are technically part of Berlin, they lie outside the built up city area, and are a place where Berliners go for some country, since it is easily accessable by S Bahn and bike.

The Pfaueninsel was originally developed as a peacock menagerie by Kurfurst Fredrick Willhelm von Brandenburg, who was the father of Fredrick I, the first king of Prussia. The Kurfurst turned the island over to Johannas Knuckel, an alchemist and glassmaker, in 1685. In 1689, after the Kurfurst died, Knuckel's workshop burned down and he was forced by Fredrick I to leave the island. Knuckel moved to Sweden which was more interested in his technology.

There are no bicycles allowed on the island so we had to park ours near the ferry. Renate and I took a walk around the island and saw the sights. Fredrick I's son, Fredrick II, had a castle built in the early 1700s:

The Pfauenschloss (Peacock Castle) seems inspired by the romantic view of the Middle Ages that permeated the 1700s. The castle itself looks nothing like a medieval castle, but more like something from Disneyland.

The Fregattenschuppen ("Frigate Shed") was built in the mid-1800's to house a small replica of an English frigate which was given to Fredrick Wilhelm III (all these Fredricks!) by the King William IV of England (all these Williams!):

A previous gift had been left out in the weather during the winter and had rotted. Fredrick Wilhelm III used the boat, which he named the Royal Louise, after the queen who had died in 1810, as a yacht on the Havel.

The stables and dormitory for the men who worked with horses were actually a tear-down that was rebuilt twice, once in Danzig and once on the Pfaueninsel. The building was originally built as a villa for a wealthy merchant in Nuremberg in 1360 but was moved to Danzig (which at that time was a German city) in 1480. During a visit to Danzig, Fredrick Wilhelm III spotted the villa and heard that was about to be torn down, so he had it imported to Potsdam and the Pfaueninsel where it was reconstructed:

On the northeast shore of the island you can even see Teufelsberg in the far distance (small white tower in the upper middle of the picture silhouetted against the sky):



 The Fredricks used to graze cattle on the island but the cattle were removed some time ago and replaced by water buffalo. Here you can see one with his horns sticking up, watching us:

The buffalo's feet are softer than a cows and so are more appropriate for the swampy conditions in the meadows at times. Cutting the meadows with a mower would have done more damage, and buffalo need to be fed. Buffalo mozzarella made with real buffalo milk is popular in Berlin. The buffalo are owned by a woman who lives in Brandenburg.


As with all places that Germans go to relax on weekends, the Pfaueninsel had a stand where you could buy a small lunch, cake, ice cream and drinks. Renate and I stopped and had some cake, chocolate cherry for me and chocolate pear for her, and coffee, a cappuccino for her and a latte macchiato  for me. Around 3, we took the ferry back to the mainland and biked home. An excellent outing to end our 6 month stay in Berlin.